alfredo2

Thanks again mate, you have blown me away with another excellent write up, I think I am starting to get the hang of things now. Sometimes it takes time to really sink in, especially when you know next to nothing about the subject like I do. If I have anymore questions I will shoot you a message or reply to this post again, if you don't mind of course. Many thanks and take care!

Thank you for that fantastic write up, I really appreciate it. You have really filled in a lot of gaps. You are right about rabbit holes, it is very easy to fall down when it comes to subjects like this when you have no background in it and you are trying to piece together little bits of info from different parts of the web. Before last week I had no idea at all about electricity apart from grounding and my knowledge on that was mostly wrong. I am from Melbourne, Australia so I believe most homes are fitted with an RCD, before this week I had no idea how our safety switches worked and always wondered how they protected us from electrical faults. Brings me back to when I was about 9 back in the 90s and my friend was making toast and it started to burn, he says he thought the house would burn down so he put his knife in the toaster to get the toast out and he tripped the safety switch. There just seems to be a lot of inaccurate info out there and it can be hard to know what is right and what is wrong. It makes me want to make sure I understand everything correctly. I have a few more queries if don't mind clearing them up for me. 1. In regards to the RCD I was told on another forum that if the water or corrosion did not make connection away from the device (to ground) then the RCD would not trip. But the water or corrosion would of course change the current and since our RCD's monitor between neutral and live there would be a change and it would then trip. I think this guy was from a different country so maybe RCDs work a little different where he is from, maybe they monitor ground over there? 2. I was also told that (I'm not sure what parts of the xbox are low or high voltage) if the xbox was a low voltage device the RCD wouldn't trip if it ran into trouble with water/corrosion, but the xbox's fuse itself would blow instead? 3. If the RCD does trip because the xbox is wet or has corrosion damage, where does that bad current go and what stops it from entering other devices (through av lead to a console connected to same tv or through a powerstrip if it has no surge protection), no more power is flowing of course but the bad current must have gone somewhere? Sorry still not 100 percent clear on the last point lol. Thanks once again mate, I really appreciate your time and knowledge, stay safe in the awesome summer we are having and lets hope for no more lockdowns!

Many thanks for you help, I really appreciate it. I have learnt a lot these past few days, it seems that with each answer it leads towards something else to learn about. I get quite curious and want to be sure, as well as reassured against mistakes I may have made in the past when I wasn't as careful or didn't think as much. Thanks again!

This should be my last post on electricity, I know I have posted a lot over the last few days and gotten some great answers, but great answers can also push you towards something new to learn about. Anyways here goes. 1. Lots of homes where I live have an RCD/ safety switch which can detect imbalances between the neutral and live connections. If there is an imbalance (such as when current is going to ground) it will trip the power. In regards to the xbox, it does not have a ground prong on its power cable, so how can an RCD trip the power in the event of a electrical fault (such as water, corrosion and other damage)? And If the TV the xbox is connected too and other devices connected to the TV don't have have ground prongs either and are all connected to the same powerstrip, how does and RCD protect them? 2. I opened up two of my consoles that were water damaged a few years ago. I checked for corrosion. Didn't see much. A little on the underside of the psu (which I don't think I can clean off) and possibly small amounts on the main board. Although there is a risk that I may miss some of it as there is a lot to examine and it may be hidden under things. My main question with this is how bad is corrosion? I know it creates shorts and I do not particular care if these particular two xboxs fail but I do care about how it may effect other consoles connected to the same powerstrip and tv. My tv does not have a ground prong and neither do the consoles. If somone could fill me in on the outcomes of corrosion and if my other consoles are protected by something? like a RCD? Thanks guys once again, and I apologise for going on about things, It is just in my nature to want to be really sure about things.

I didn't see much corrosion on my two water damaged consoles (on the underside of the psu's there was some). So I took some photos for some more knowledgeable people. What do you think? Are these two Xboxes okay for service? They both work, I replaced the fan on one, now I need to replace the fan on the second. The power buttons and eject buttons are a little fussy. Here is My first one. https://imgur.com/a/rsZaqVX Here is the second. https://imgur.com/a/9IEXRLE Thanks

I think maybe the fans are really susceptible to rust and humidity. The damaged happened during a hot summer during a move.

Yeh lol, it was in the same container as the first water damaged console.

Thanks for your help. I booted it up, everything seems to be in working order, the fan is dead though so I will have to see what I can do about that.

Okay, I have had a look at the board and psu, it looks okay. On one of my earlier posts you said something about AV cables causing damage to other devices if the console was damaged and connected to the same TV. Should I unplug all other AV cables from the TV?

Many thanks to you guys for helping a me out with my water damaged console. Now it is working again without switching off. After going through my stored items I came across another xbox which was in the same container as my previous water damaged console. I never turned this one on so I am not sure if it works. I want to see what I can do with it. I am going to be a lot more cautious with this one so in regards to switching it on, what precautions should I take? Thanks

Thanks for your help once again Dave, I really appreciate it. So just a few more questions. 1. So when there is a fault where does all the extra electricity go? I have heard many conflicting things about how electricity works, like it will return to source, or it will go to ground or take the path of least resistance or even mostly go to ground but some power will take other available paths. 2. I have heard that if it is strong enough it could push back against neutral or hot and go where it shouldn't, how probable is that? 3. When the xbox fuse blows, does it actually die and the console won't work? How much extra power would it take to blow and where does this extra power go? 4. Lastly how does an AV fault effect other consoles, I only ask because I have moved from a much older house, how probable is this fault and where does this extra power go? Many thanks again!

I fixed my water damaged xbox today with a lot of help and pointers from some of the guys here. Basically my xbox was water damaged a few years ago, after a long time drying out I turned it on and it would only stay on for about 20 minutes before shutting itself off. I never really planned on fixing it as I have many replacements but today I noticed that the fan was dead and I replaced it, now it seems to be working fine. What led me to do this was another issue, I had forgotten about the damage earlier this week and booted the console up to grab some files, anyway the console shut itself down a few times while I was going about some other things around the house. I don't know much about electricity, basically just hot, neutral and ground, that's about it. So I was thinking about how I had this damaged xbox plugged into a power strip with several other consoles and whether this damaged xbox could damage other consoles sharing its powerstrip if used. Now I have been told by the higher ups here that it is not a problem, but I would like to know why. Basically how does a (specifically 1.6) xbox deal with electrical problems, whether it is a short, water damage, any electrical issues. What prevents it from damaging other consoles that share a power strip or power plug? I know the xbox does not have a grounding prong so what prevents any excess charge traveling to other systems? My xbox had a dead fan which I would assume shorted out from water damage, how does that factor? (specifically a 1.6 xbox) Many thanks guys for all your help and I hope I am not being a pain.

Okay, I have replaced the fan, the xbox has been on for about an hour now without shutting off, so I think the problem is solved. Thanks everyone for your help.

I have a replacement fan, I am going to give it a go, I will report back. Thanks

I just got home, did a quick test, the fan is not working. That would explain why it shuts itself off after awhile. I have some photos of the top of the board, I will have to now get to the bottom of the board.

Gonna take the pictures tonight when I get home. When it comes to electrical problems with the xbox, how does the xbox deal with these?

Thanks for your help, the xbox indeed does hold sentimental value, It was my first xbox, I got it for xmas in the early 00s, and have a great many memories associated with it. I will take a picture of the mobo a bit later and we can see what we can see.

Thanks for your help, I have many replacement xboxes so I am not concerned about whether this particular xbox works, but it does hold a lot of sentimental value. With this damaged xbox, does its psu also protect the powerboard side from this damaged consoles own electrical faults?

I thought it might be that. I will take a pic.

So no chance any voltage or current could shoot up the hot or neutral connections of the other consoles? Does the xbox have something in place to prevent this? Sorry to go on.

I don't think it was completely submerged. It was in a sealed container and water got in somehow. It was mostly dry by the time I found out so I don't really know. It seems like it overheats and shuts itself off after a certain period.

A few years ago, my very first xbox console got water damaged in a freak storage accident. I let it dry out for an extended period of time, made sure it was dry and turned it on (still pretty dumb I know, I was dumber then), it worked for a short time before it turned itself off. Now it just sits as a reminder of my high school days. I few days ago I was looking for a file so I switched it on, I actually forgot it had been damaged in the past (I have a lot of xboxes) It switched itself off when I went downstairs. Thinking that I had turned it off, I turned it on again to continue what I was doing and it turned off. Then I remembered why, the water damage. Anyway it is no longer important to me whether it works or not. What is important is that I had it plugged in to a powerboard/plugboard which has a quite a few other consoles plugged in. Now I don't know much about electricity but I am a bit concerned about my other consoles that were plugged into the same powerboard this xbox was using. How likely is it that my old damaged xbox damaged those other consoles? It is a 1.6 if that makes a difference and I have the standard power cable with no grounding prong. I asked this same question on the og xbox reddit but from what I have been told, this forum is the best for the more hardware related stuff. Thanks!

I am trying to do some tinkering with my 1.6b xbox, just some ftping saves and some work with configmagic. I want to keep the console as stock as possible, I was going to use SID but to be honest I much prefer to use Rocky's softmod tool 1.1.8 as it is known as the best and most reliable. Just 3 questions I have about Rocky's softmod tool 1.1.8. specifically 1. After I uninstall the softmod when I am done, when the gamesave exploit is loaded, is it safe to overwrite Tdata and Udata with my own files? In other words does the exploit load in memory like SID so I can delete everything on E and write my own files? 2. When uninstalling the softmod, it states in the manual that the gamesaves exploits will be reinstalled to e and UDDAE exploit will be put in place to reinstall the mod if needed. How would I go about uninstalling the UDDAE exploit? I want to keep the system stock after I have done a few things. 3. Does Rockys softmod install anything to the hard drive (like config area) or other parts to the system other than C and E drive? Thanks

It is their product at the end of the day. Thanks again

Damn that's a shame lol. Thanks for your help Kaos.